Vision and Hitting

As it relates to your stance, seeing the ball better means how you initially stand in the batter’s box to look out at the pitcher. There are basically three different types of stance. The neutral stance is one where your feet are square to the plate. This means that they are an equal distance from the plate. A stance like this affords you a good, comfortable look at the pitcher without straining yourself or otherwise becoming uncomfortable in the batter’s box. Most Major League hitters use a neutral stance. Ken Griffey, Jr., for one. Remember, we are only talking about how you place your feet in the batter’s box. We want to build that solid foundation from the ground up.

The second stance, and also a very popular one with Major League hitters, is the closed stance. On the closed stance, the foot closest to the pitcher’s mound is placed slightly closer to home plate than the other foot. The key word here is slightly. You can overdo most anything, and getting too closed with your stance will definitely hamper your hitting. The great Tony Gwynn believes this is probably the best stance for most hitters.

The open stance is just the opposite. The foot closest to the mound is pulled away from home plate. Jay Buhner of the Mariners is one of the more notable hitters that uses the open stance. Fewer Major League hitters use this stance, because of the obvious distance it takes you from the hitting zone. An open stance requires you to do more during the time the pitch is on its way to the plate, in order to get in the proper hitting position. More on that later.

So, which stance is right for you? Well, each one has its advantages. Before you choose one though, I’d like you to take a little test. Because it is important to see the ball well, we need to find out which of your eyes is the dominant eye. The dominant eye is the one that does the majority of the work when you look at something. It sends the messages to the brain about where the ball is as it relates to the space around you. Your other eye does the same thing, but your dominant eye sends more precise information. Remember, you want every advantage on your side, not the pitcher’s.

Extend your hand out in front of you with your thumb up as though you are giving a friend the "thumbs up" or "good job, way to go," sign. With both eyes open, pick an object about twenty feet away from you and position your thumb so that the end of it covers that object. Now, close your left eye. Did your thumb seem like it moved over to the left? If it did, your left eye is your dominant eye. If nothing happened and your thumb is still covering the object, close your right eye. Did your thumb seem to have jumped over to the right? If so, your right eye is the dominant eye.

Why is all of this important to you? The answer is simple, you want to make use of your dominant eye when you are hitting. Choosing the proper stance to help put that dominant eye to work is important. Ideally, your dominant eye would be the one closest to the pitcher. The left eye for the right handed batter, the right eye for the left handed batter. Unfortunately, most people are just the opposite. Right handed batters generally are right eye dominant and vice-versa.
Having your dominant eye closer to the pitcher contributes to better tracking of the ball to the hitting zone. This is one of the factors that helps explain why switch hitters hit better from one side or the other. Not having this luxury does not mean you can’t be a good hitter.
What it means is, by knowing which eye sends the more precise messages to the brain, you should position yourself so that you see the ball with that eye.
This is the reason most Major League hitters choose the neutral position as their stance of choice. I doubt, however, that many of them consciously know which of their eyes is dominant. It probably came about from years of trial and error and they finally settled on that position because they felt they saw the ball better. You can wipe out years of trial and error just by knowing which of your eyes sees the ball better! From the neutral stance, you can position your head comfortably enough over your front shoulder to use both eyes to see the ball, bringing your dominant eye into play. This is known as binocular, using both eyes.
Obviously, the open stance gives you an even greater use of both eyes. The reason it is not employed as often by great hitters, is that the trade off for good vision and the increased amount of things you need to do to get in the proper hitting position is simply not worth it. The less complicated your swing is, the more successful you are apt to be. Again, more on this later.
The closed stance has advantages. If you can comfortably position your head over the front shoulder to utilize the vision from both eyes, you can take advantage of the increased plate coverage you get from this stance. Stan Musial, one of the great hitters of all time, used a slightly closed stance. If you were to look at him from the pitcher’s mound during his stance, you might think his neck was made of rubber his head was turned so far over his front shoulder. Needless to say, he saw the ball very well, and he hit the ball very well.
To sum this section up; since we are building a good hitter a little at a time, pick a stance that affords you the best opportunity to see the ball well. Taking into consideration which of your eyes sends the more accurate messages to the brain. You need to give that computer up there the proper information if you want to be successful at one of the more difficult physical acts in sports.

Little League!

What a time and place to grow and live! The memories I have from little league baseball are amazing! You can't replace the sense of accomplishment in seeing your family so proud of you. You can't beat the experience, that hopefully every kid enjoys at some point, of a "suicide" after the game. Now, I'm talking about a drink that is every fountain drink, that isn't diet, all mixed together in one cup. The thing is in today's game doesn't it tend to get a little over the top. I mean, how many times do you remember in little league throwing 85 pitches? What 10 to 12 year old kid needs to throw 85 pitches in one game? And then of those 85 pitches why are 40 of those pitches curve balls? This may just be my beef with little league and all the exposure of a young kid playing competitive baseball. The problem is now that most of these top level baseball players at age 12 who are playing in about 100 games of baseball per summer are either doing nothing else all year long or they are burned out by the time they are 16.
Now I understand there are people who are prodigy kids and they are all well and good, but you aren't going to get your kid drafted into the major leagues at age 14. The thing about baseball is that knowing how to do everything right is far more important than playing 100 games a year. My father always told me it was good for me to be active in almost every athletic competition. It is good for a young kid to have a chance to play football, basketball, soccer(football), and baseball (and any other sport not named here). It is good for them to be well rounded. Most of the major division 1 athletes and professionals in almost every sport played other sports and many still actively train and play, at least in recreation. So, instead of deciding at age 9 what professional sport your child is going to play let them pick it out and let them enjoy little league. It will be the time of their young lives, I know it was for me.

Traditional Weight Training vs. Emerging Training Methods

There has been a lot of hype coming out with all the new types of workouts hitting the market. All of these programs offer something different and want to appeal to a certain crowd of people but is it right for what you want to accomplish? Well let's take a look at them and see what they can do for you. Let's start with traditional weight training. With proper instruction and balance to a traditional weight training regiment along with speed training you will definitely be able to see increases in strength, size and explosiveness. The advantages of doing a traditional weight training method includes the number of different exercises possibly allow for the workout to be customized slightly to motions you are more comfortable with while still targeting the desired muscle group, although the training time to see the results may be prolonged slightly the results are more consistent, and depending on what results you are specifically looking for there are a number of exceptional sources for information online that an help you obtain your desired results best of all they are typically free to access online. Now the emerging training methods, such as P90X or the insanity workouts, use body weight exercises to increase strength, flexibility and endurance. Most of the exercises are designed to sculpt and tone muscles though a series of exercises that take advantage of high repetitions with little to no added weight. The advantages to these training methods include typically quicker results, improved flexibility, and they are designed to be full body workouts, so no muscle group gets left out. The emerging training methods typically are a specialized program that unless you spend the money and buy the materials to help you learn new ways to use the workout for better results. Now for most athletes especially those in competitive team sports typically traditional weight training is the best choice because the vast amount of information to help you change the workouts ever so slightly to make sure you are getting the desired results. Also it does allow for better control over which phase in the training cycle you are in so the trained athlete can be peaking at the optimum time for his/her sport of choice.

Baseball Hitting Fundamentals.

Hitting 101

If you want to be a great hitter, you have to be able to hit the ball and be able to learn from other people in order to get better.  The thing about life is that no one, not even you, is born great.  You have to work at it.  There are some basics that almost every "expert," whether self-proclaimed or not, should teach you.  Whether your swing is good, bad or indifferent, the thing you have to keep in mind is there are a lot of people out there that will tell you several different approaches.  All may be good advice but may not fit your style of play.  So the key is to weed out the "garbage."  Now I use that term loosely because one man's trash is another man's treasure.  What may not work for you may work for your best friend.  So how do you determine what is "garbage"?  Test it out.  Find a stance that fits you, and an approach that fits you and continue tweaking it.  It is a process.  The longer you play, the more consistent you will become.  Just keep at it and keep an open ear, you never know what might work for you.